Plaid accused of hypocrisy over the living wage.

Wales Online  have seized  on  a Liberal Democrat claim  that Plaid Cymru has been accused of hypocrisy over the living wage after it emerged that almost 4,000 employees of Plaid-led councils earn less than £7.85.

The correspondent  writes

The Welsh nationalist party (sic)  is going into the 2015 General Election with a pledge to push for the living wage to be rolled out across Wales.
But the Welsh Liberal Democrats obtained figures through Freedom of Information which show 1,852 people at Gwynedd council, 1,232 people at Conwy council and 902 people at Ceredigion council earn less than the living wage.
It also found that a total of 590 people across the three councils are employed on zero hour contracts.
Ceredigion announced on Tuesday that its minimum wage would rise to £7.19, while Gwynedd said it has removed two of its lowest pay points from the council’s pay structure.

 Lib Dem Ceredigion  MP (who may be under threat from Plaid) Mark Williams said:

 “Plaid Cymru’s hypocrisy on the living wage is utterly astonishing. Plaid had the cheek to write to organisations lecturing them about the living wage, yet councils they themselves run fail to pay it.”

 Councillor Peredur Jenkins, Gwynedd council cabinet member for resources, said: 

Gwynedd has significantly reduced its zero hours contracts over the last few years, and this will continue as more and more of the council’s care workers are offered fixed hours contracts.

“Last March the council approved a recommendation to delete the two lowest pay points from the council pay structure as a first step towards improving the wages of the lowest paid council workers. This change has benefitted around 2,000 of the council’s lowest paid staff with pay increases ranging from 2.9% to 5.7% for these largely part-time workers.”

Ceredigion county council leader, Councillor Ellen ap Gwynn, announced on Tuesday that the council’s minimum wage will be raised to £7.19. Councillor Ellen ap Gwynn said her announcement was in line with a long term policy to move towards the living wage.

She added that the council does not enforce mandatory zero hour contracts.

So a embarrassment for Plaid though its actually a story that that's quite old and we can wonder what the Liberal Democrats would be doing if they were still running Ceredigion   for instance ? Or is there any council  in Wales or the UK who are not fully paying the Living wage or not using zero contracts 

However this should not distract anybody from suggesting Plaid should clean up its own backyard .

On another note  leaving my self open to accusations of shooting the messenger Wales online describe the correspondent   David  Deans 

as Senedd Correspondent for WalesOnline. He started his career in Newport at the South Wales Argus in 2007. David moved to WalesOnline in 2014. He lives in Cardiff, despite being Bristolian. He likes the Glaswegian band Mogwai, weird documentaries, international news and tea shops.

Maybe he should be told that the Plaid Logo  is a Welsh Poppy and not a Daffodil  as stated  in the article.

Wales Online think this a Daffodil after all these years. 

And maybe think about not using the term Welsh Nationalists because that covers non Plaid Members as well and may lead readers to think you have a hostile agenda